ROCK LEGEND NEWS
ROCK LEGEND NEWS FIRENZE, ITALY
INTERVIEWS ISSUE 38
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ROCK LEGEND NEWS FIRENZE ITALY
Issue 38 - Interview Craig Goldy Published By Alchemist Publishing Firenze, Italy Rock Legend News Founded By Londa R. Marks October 16, 2014 Chief Editor & CEO: Londa R. Marks Concept, Graphics & Design: Londa R. Marks Content & Contributors: Some entries are from Wikipedia, the user-contributed encyclopedia which may not have been reviewed by professional editors and is licensed under an Attribution-ShareAlike Creative Commons License. If content is factually incorrect or highly offensive you can edit articles at Wikipedia use of data and may include other wiki’s, stock photos, private archived photos, stock illustrations, social news aggregators, contributor photos, RSS news feeds, print syndications, submitted news tips & information and similar sources. Magazine, graphics, installments, editing & website designed, developed, coded at Londa R. Marks Studio in Firenze, Italy. * Over a Million World Wide Readership/Viewers Since 2016 * Londa R. Marks Founder/Administrator of: Pete Way Facebook Group Headquarters & General Contact: Rock Legend News L.R. Marks Studio 50123 Firenze, Italy Email: support@rocklegendnews.com Website: www.rocklegendnews.com Facebook: facebook.com/rocklegendnews Twitter: twitter.com/rocklegendnews YouTube: youtube.com/rocklegendnews
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https://www.craiggoldy.com/ Craig Goldy performed on the Dio album Dream Evil, but this first stint with the band was short lived and he left due to unknown reasons. In 2000, Goldy returned to Dio and helped record Magica, but shortly thereafter left again due to family commitments. Doug Aldrich replaced him for the album, Killing the Dragon. However, Goldy was back in the Dio fold for what turned out to be the band’s final studio album, Master of the Moon, in 2004. Goldy temporarily left the group for the third time in 2005, after suffering a hand injury on tour through Russia. He was again replaced by Doug Aldrich for the duration of the tour. ROCK LEGEND NEWS
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Interview With Craig Goldy September 16, 2014 By Londa R. Marks | Interviews Published By Rock Legend News, Firenze, Italy Rock Legend News: What has been your approach to music Craig? Craig Goldy: My approach to music is that of a fan first and foremost….I’m a fan…..so I still have that excitement inside for this type of music…..so when it comes to writing and recording, I try to come up with something that I would be excited about as a fan myself…..when it comes to performing….I like to try and “sound” like the album versions both with the rhythms and solo-wise as much as possible….firstly, out of respect for the original creator….and then….most anyone can do most anything in the studio, with over-dubs and second and third chances to get it right…..but not in a live situation…..so I try to give a “CD” quality performance to the fans that are expecting to hear what was originally played and created for on the CD of the songs we play live…..and then add a little me to it. Over-all, my approach to music, is trying to come up with something new and unexpected! With the band I am starting now on my own, my approach is going to be, writing music that is fresh enough to be considered unique, yet familiar enough to get a warm welcome on the first listen. There will be some twists and turns that will be unexpected and with the highest quality of musicianship that my band and I can both create, record and perform. I will be doing this, while trying to use all that I have learned over the many years of working side by side with Mr. Ronnie James Dio……in such a way….that I can only hope would’ve made him proud. Rock Legend News: As well as playing with Dio, you are known for having played with Rough Cutt and Giuffria. Will you tell us some of your memories with them? Craig Goldy: Rough Cutt was actually the time that I first met Ronnie. I had heard from one of the band members the night before the audition for Rough Cutt, that Ronnie wanted to meet me, and that he would be there for the audition. Meet me…..ha!! I wanted to meet him!! He was inspired by my audition and asked to sit in on the rest of it with me and the guys, we did “Man on the Silver Mountain” and “Heaven and Hell” together! Then he asked me to play one of my riffs that I wrote to see if it would work with their sound…..and he sang on that too!! It was at a concert that Rough Cutt was headlining, when Mr. Gregg Giuffria approached me afterwards to see if I would be willing to check
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out his new project….I was staying at Ronnie’s house at the time and knew this would be risky…….I see visions sometimes….as weird as that might sound….when I heard Gregg’s new band ….I saw a vision….and said to myself….”This is going to be big”…… this situation was not an easy one for me…..you see, I came from living in a car on the streets of San Diego to get away from the physical and verbal abuse I was getting from my family…Ronnie heard my demo tape that I made from my last $20 from giving guitar lessons…..and he and Wendy actually rented amplifiers and cables for me to do the audition for Rough Cutt, because I only had a guitar……Ronnie was and still is my favorite singer of all time….and he was the voice I turned to when in times of trouble and pain from my family……Gregg Giuffria had a bad reputation around town at the time….and Rough Cutt was getting a record deal on Warner Bros. records…….so I was faced with leaving the new family that I have just been welcomed into with open arms headed by no other than Mr. Ronnie James Dio, a record deal with Warner Bros. (the same record company as Ronnie and Deep Purple) and join up with a guy with a bad reputation and no security of a record deal or of any security of any kind…….but I saw what I saw…. and heard what I heard in my head that day…….so I left…..everyone except for Ronnie thought that I was crazy!!! But less than a year later….Rough Cutt was dropped off the label and Giuffria had a hit song and a hit album in the top 40, touring with Deep Purple (my favorite band) and was number 9 in the MTV top 20 video countdown, now touring the world as the opening act for Deep Purple and then later on with Foreigner, in 20,000 seat arenas every night! Rock Legend News: How did you come to join Dio? Craig Goldy: While working with Rough Cutt in the studio recording demos with Ronnie as the producer and his Wife Wendy as the manager……Ronnie and I quickly became friends and gravitated towards each other in the creative process involved…..so much so…that one late night in the studio….Ronnie turned to me and said…..”Goldy, if Viv (the original guitarist for Dio) ever doesn’t work out….you’d be my first choice”!!.....now this was back before “Holy Diver” had been fully recorded and released! Ronnie would have me over to his house as his guest on many occasions…..and it was just he and I…sitting around talking and laughing….he would often go get his VCR equipment from the back room, and bring it into the front room so he and I could watch old “Rainbow” videos together. When it became late, he would tell me just to stay over….he would make me a bed on the floor, with a mattress, pillows, sheets and blankets…and then he would give me a set of headphones to listen to the “Holy Diver” recordings before they were even finished……tuck me in like a father would for his son, and say “Goodnight Goldy, see you in the morning”. That would’ve been enough for me….a true fan…..but….after Rudy Sarzo and Tommy Aldridge left Ozzy, right around the same time as the “We’re Stars” recordings…..I was asked to come over to Rudy’s house and check out their project…..I needed something closer to my true roots of hard ROCK LEGEND NEWS
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rock and heavy metal than what I was getting with Giuffria….and this was it!.......nearly a year and a half later…….Ronnie….being a man of his word…..asked me to join his band……that is why there were no auditions…..he meant what he said to me in the studio that late night so many years ago…..and simply stayed true to his word! Except this time….I was IN the band that was headlining 20,000 seat arenas every night!! Rock Legend News: What was the creative process like with Ronnie James Dio? How open was he to your ideas? Craig Goldy:The creative process with Mr. Ronnie James Dio, now my friend and band mate….was exactly like it was when I was in Rough Cutt….only better….and every day!! He had a work ethic second to none! His imagination was without boundaries….. and so was his skill level and talent levels! We would write and record the entire album at his house first, and then go into a proper studio, knowing full well what it was that we wanted…… Long before the hours we spent recording now meant spending money!! He could play bass, guitar, keyboards and program the drum machine……and so could I……and that meant that there were even less boundaries when it came to writing and recording…..so much so….that it was he and I….mostly me…..that recorded all the keyboards for “Magica” and “Master of the Moon”!! He was very open to my ideas and production assistance…..not to the point of giving me co-production credit…..but those who do their homework know where a lot of the ideas and production value came from on “Magica” especially!! We would start at 11:00am each day (only because we didn’t stop until 2:00am or 3:00am the night/morning before) and just go and go…..I don’t think I ever outlasted him….but I certainly kept up!! We would get to the point that there were no days off…..so we made a deal with
CRAIG GOLDY Albums With Dio • • • • • •
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Intermission EP (1986) “Time To Burn” Dream Evil (1987) Magica (2000) Master of the Moon (2004) At Donington UK: Live 1983 & 1987 (2010) Finding the Sacred Heart: Live in Philly 1986 (2013)
each other…..12 days on…..2 days off…..of course, even though he had me move in with him at his house so we had 24 hour access to one another…..those 2 days were away….but not away….my mind was always there…and I’d come home to him in the studio saying….”Goldy…..you gotta check THIS out”!!....but as far as being open to my ideas……let me rewind a little bit….Back in Rough Cutt, unbeknownst to the other band members……they were all so self-absorbed that they couldn’t see past themselves …..meanwhile I’m over at Ronnie’s and he’s asking me what I’ve been working on…..so I play him some of my ideas….and he loved them…..so much so…..that when the band started submitting songs for the upcoming demo to be recorded…..he was wondering where my ideas were……they certainly weren’t in the new songs being submitted….so Ronnie took it upon himself…..to drive down to a Rough Cutt rehearsal….taking time away from writing and recording “Holy Diver”….walked into rehearsal and said to the guys…..”Hey, Craig has some great ideas……you should use them……if you want to continue with me”!!......now…fast forward…..when it came time to write and record for what would later be called “Dream Evil”…..Ronnie called me and told me about the Dio song writing protocol…..he and Jimmy (Bain) would start and then they would bring in Viv to finish…..and so it will be with this album…..so I started putting ideas together…… after a few weeks went by…….Ronnie called me and said that it looks like Jimmy isn’t into this as much….so…”You’re up kid”!! Little did he know that during that two week period, I had stored up over 135 song ideas and guitar riff ideas! So, that is why he and I co-wrote 8 out of the 9 songs on “Dream Evil”…one of them being the title track to the album…..and one of them becoming a hit song!!.......that is also why, it was mostly he and I writing for and recording on “Magica” and “Master of the Moon”…….and also why there’s a keyboard solo in “All the Fools Sailed away”!!! Rock Legend News: You are still affiliated with Niji Entertainment Group; Ronnie Dio and his wife Wendy’s company. What are you doing with Niji now? Craig Goldy: At this time, it is the “Dio Disciples” and my long standing friendship and working relationship with Wendy that keeps me close to Niji! The Dio Disciples is not a full-time band, a career, a gig or a money making enterprise…..it is a group of guys that were IN his band, close friends of his and Wendy’s and/or close friends with the Dio family circle that get together as often as possible…..going only where we are invited ……and perform the music that this unequaled man created as well as some of the songs we wrote and recorded with him. We do this in order to keep his memory alive…. in the form of a “memorial service” cloaked as a rock concert. The world was his family….and it is the world that still loves him and misses him as much as we do……so we try to do this as often as we can. There is something special that happens when a group of people all gather together in the same place, with the same hearts and minds as one another….and that is what these concerts are…..so there’s always a time when the “band” and the audience connect as one….and Wow!! That is just something that ROCK LEGEND NEWS
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every true Dio fan should experience at least for once in their lifetime and NOT rely on the crappy recordings on YouTube…they may watch them with a few of their friends…. but it’s not the same as the big ass speakers pumping out Ronnie’s music played the way it was meant to be played…..live and loud…in a room full of like-minded people!! Rock Legend News: Prior to joining Dio, you were part of Ronnie’s Hear ‘N Aid project when you were in Giuffria. Was that a project dear to your heart? If so why? Craig Goldy: Yes that was a project dear to my heart! Since I came from living on the streets to Headlining with my favorite singer……I promised myself that I would try to help others as much as possible!! There is a quote from a famous educator…..Mr. Horace Mann….. that I think this project did in fact touch upon, and everyone on the planet should try to live by….” Be ashamed to die….until you’ve won some victory for mankind”…..I tell myself…..that I want to try to make at least one thing that was once “wrong” before I was born….”right” before I die…….just to keep it simpler! Rock Legend News: Will you tell us about the project, Dio Disciples, with Simon Wright and Rudy Sarzo? Craig Goldy: This could be combined with the Niji question above……but Rudy and Simon were both in the band when Ronnie passed….and Rudy stayed with the Dio Disciples as often as he could…..but life has a way of getting in the way at times….and since the Dio Disciples is not a full-time band, career and/or money making enterprise….we all are forced to do many things now-a-days in order to make ends meet…..some of us have our own projects……and some of us took longer than others to get there…..moving forward into the pages of life that we all must now face without Ronnie….is and was harder on some of us more than others!! Rock Legend News: Why were you chosen, or how was it decided that you would cowrite the song called “Lady Luck” with David Lee Roth? Craig Goldy: Actually….this is an interesting story….when I wrote with Ronnie for the Dream Evil album….Warner Bros. was impressed with me being the first Dio guitarist to write so much with Ronnie, that they signed me up as a songwriter for them…. at the same time John Kalodner an A&R rep that was single handedly responsible for Aerosmith’s big come back….asked me to join Whitesnake….and David Glenn Eisley (lead singer for Giuffria) to be the lead singer for Blue Murder….when neither of those two scenarios came to pass….Kalodner put Eisley and myself into the studio to record some songs…..of which he turned down…..those songs later became the property of Warner Bros……David Lee Roth was looking for guys to write with….Warner Bros. sent him those songs….he heard them and some others that I had written….and he (David Lee Roth) called me personally at home saying…”Hey man…Dave Roth here…..I really love your s**t man…let’s get together and write some s**t….do you have any other ideas you could play me?” I said yes…..even though I had nothing at that time…during PAGE 8 ROCK LEGEND NEWS
this period….Mr. Roth was working with Bob Ezrin as his producer (Pink Floyd among many others)…and they wanted to change his image from “Diamond Dave” to “Dangerous Dave”….they both wanted me to come over to Bob’s house and meet…..this was on a Monday….and they wanted to meet on Wednesday…..I had 2 days…..so… needless to say…I put my “nose to the grind stone” and one of the riffs and song ideas I came up with….ended up as “Lady Luck”!! Rock Legend News: The Welsh hard rock band, Budgie, who influenced The New Wave of British Heavy Metal, (NWOBHM) and bands like Metallica, considered among the “heaviest of metal bands” in the 70’s is your next project as I understand. Is this so? And if so, who is in this band lineup aside from yourself? What are the plans? Craig Goldy: Right around 2009…I was asked to be a guest guitarist for Budgie at one point to fill in until they got a full-time guitarist….they had some concerts coming up in Australia at that time….and asked me if I would do it….so I did. They were so happy with what I brought to the table…..that they stopped looking for guitarists. Then they wanted to record a full length album with me…..thinking of calling it “Hybrid”…and just before we started a tour in Poland to try out some new material…..Burke went into emergency surgery and the doctor said that he may not be able to sing like he used to anymore…..so far…he’s made a full recovery….and they plan on doing another full length album, and have asked me to do it with them…..but there are now some issues with the lineup that I am not at liberty to discuss…and things are on hold. I am not a full-time Budgie guitarist, nor was I supposed to be…..it just kinda ended up looking like that because they were so pleased with me at the time! Rock Legend News: I want to ask you the same thing I am asking others because it is a profound occurrence now. Why do you think the 80’s are re-igniting? I mean, it is like it’s 1985 in Colombia, South America; it is happening here in Italy and it is apparent all over the world that the 80’s and even the 70’s rock styles are becoming enlivened again. Craig Goldy: This is a good question….and I think your readers would also want to know how and why this is happening!!....so…. Well, for one thing…..there are “seasons” to everything that lives…..those seasons do come and go, and you cannot set your watch or your calendar by them when those seasons are directly connected with the entertainment industry in any shape and/or form!.....however…..good is good….and great is great…When “Desert Storm” hit….. that war created a recession within the economy….then Michael Jackson demanded a billion dollar advance from the record company…which he got….and did not recoup…. once Madonna caught wind of this…..she did the very same thing…..and also…did not recoup! This caused a recession within a recession……at the same time, there were record ROCK LEGEND NEWS
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company guys who had job security and did not need the approval of anyone to sign new bands to that record label…..there was deviant behavior going on in Seattle….. this behavior was being offered to these record company guys to have performed in their hotel rooms privately…..so….they went….meanwhile the local bands there thought they would never get noticed….so they weren’t writing songs according to the 80’s formula that had oversaturated the market at that same time…..causing listeners to be in “search” mode for something new. Before the deviant behavior was to be performed in the hotel room…..the girls asked the record company guys to come see their friend’s band play that night……so….they did….cause…..more girls that would “behave” in their room later that night would also be there……if there was anything going on in the 80’s….it was “The more the Merrier”!! The bands that played that night weren’t wearing flannel shirts for a fashion statement….they were cold and freezing their butts off! The music they played that night was everything opposite of the 80’s band formula…..with job security full in hand….one of the record company guys signed them because he loved the fact that they were breaking all the existing rules….now….at the same time….record companies were tightening their budget belts in order to recoup from the aforementioned loss….so all the 80’s guys that were used to having a $500,000 album budget….could no longer sip their $900 glasses of wine while patting themselves on the back and writing more of the same…… they became resentful…..and started working less and less….putting out worse material…..meanwhile these Seattle bands were “lucky” to be doing an album for $30,000!..... and ending up selling millions upon millions of product! Now…..this is where “seasons” come into play even greater…..During the recession from “Desert Storm”……business’ were laying off and firing people left and right to save money…some of those people had families…..some of those Fathers that got laid off…..were the ones previously yelling at their kids to go to college, get a good job and to have something to fall back on if their dream of becoming a “rock star” didn’t pan out……now these Fathers are getting drunk every night cause they lost their jobs….. can’t find new ones and lost their pension….now….they start hitting the Mom’s and slapping around the kids during their drunken binges…..so…..when a band comes out with a “Screw the establishment” sort of song…..with a total disregard for the current “norm” in both their look AND their music….what do you think is going to happen??? At that time, you didn’t have to be a virtuoso and look like a Greek god to become a “rock star”……the tables have turned drastically in the favor of the average joe……so…. average music was being put out…..there are some great new bands…..but nothing like Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin!! Now that the average joe has had HIS run and THAT kind of music has oversaturated the market…..forcing the listeners back into “search” mode again……meanwhile missing the music they grew up on……what do you think will happen!!!! ….Meanwhile…. PAGE 10 ROCK LEGEND NEWS
thank God for the video game…”Guitar Hero” and all if it’s 80’s based music that was introduced to a whole new and younger generation…..that is why we have the young AND the old, along with the market place smiling upon the 80’s based music again!!.... Hopefully we don’t screw it up this time!
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